Ronnie Schell recalls Gong Show as Vallejo hosts its own version

From 1976 to '78 and in re-runs through 1989, frizzy-haired host and producer Chuck Barris brought the absurd to the daytime TV stage.

While the acts were here today, gone to driving trucks, working fast-food and likely doing anything that had nothing to do with performing ability. Barris nonetheless lured some of Hollywood's noted celebrities into the judges' pit.

From Pearl Bailey to Steve Martin, Joan Rivers to Dionne Warwick, the era's popular comics and musical acts readily offered themselves either for the fun or because Barris had embarrassing photographs of them and threatened to go public.

Richmond-raised Ronnie Schell, a stand-up comic known most for his "Gomer Pyle" TV character, judged about "13 or 14" episodes of The Gong Show "and always had a great time."

Schell, though Southern California-based, manages to sneak back to the Bay Area a few times a year to visit friends and family.

Informed that local photographer Brian O'Reilly was reviving the show's format -- The Vallejo Gong Show -- for a Vallejo Community Arts Foundation benefit March 15 at the Empress Theatre, Schell looked back fondly -- though the 1970s have become much of a blur.

"I did so many guest shots I can't remember most of the judges except (the late comic) Pat McCormick, Jamie Farr, Rip Taylor and a great blonde singer who later became sort of a regular on the show," Schell said. "She had one big hit."

O'Reilly said Barris got the best judges because he was allegedly with the CIA "and he had stuff on all the judges. It was 'be on my show as a judge or I will tell on you.' I would like to know what 'stuff' Barris had on Schell."

Schell said Barris "was crazy, but an OK guy."

Schell does recall one episode when two young comics came out and much to Schell's surprise, did a routine that he performed in his stand-up act.

"It was a bus driver routine that I wrote," Schell said. "Naturally, I gave them very

high marks."

If an act was truly horrendous, the judge gong's him

or her.

"The only time I ever 'gonged' anyone was an old lady who sang terribly," Schell said. "After the show, she accosted me and said she was no longer a fan of mine and I was not nice to gong her."

Schell said it was nice to hear that O'Reilly keeps the tradition alive.